Tara Reid said recently that she's signed on to a sequel to
"The Big Lebowski" later this year. Which is news to the original film's writers and directors,
Joel and
Ethan Coen.

Just to be clear, there is no "Big Lebowski 2" in the works. The Dude is still abiding, but the Coens -- who are coming off "True Grit" (which stars the Dude himself,
Jeff Bridges) -- say they're not working on a sequel (in fact, they've never made a sequel to any of their movies).

"I'm glad she's working on it," Ethan Coen
tells Austin360 with a laugh. He clarifies that Reid -- who played Bunny Lebowski in the movie -- was not speaking about any project that was actually on the drawing board, "but we'll watch it when it comes out. Especially if Tara's in it."

The misunderstanding began when Reid
told Hollywood.tv a couple weeks ago that in addition to a couple of films she's doing this year ("The Fields" and "The Irishman"), "we'll be doing 'American Pie 4' this year and 'The Big Lebowski 2' this year." Which prompted the response from the Coens, and the following backtracking from Reid's rep:

"She heard Jeff Bridges say that he wanted to make 'Big Lebowski 2' and have all the original cast members in it," the rep
tells EW. "So she may have misspoke, thinking that included her based on what Jeff said."

As best we can tell, the only thing Bridges has said recently about a "Big Lebowski" sequel
happened at Comic-Con last July. He said then that he and the Coens "talked about it occasionally" during the filming of "True Grit," but added that there were "no plans, man, no plans. ... I don't think it's gonna happen. But if it happens -- what a wonderful surprise!"

How "I don't think it's gonna happen" turned into "Jeff Bridges [said] that he wanted to make 'Big Lebowski 2' and have all the original cast members in it" escapes us. Maybe Tara Reid knows.